Majestic Brotherhood of the Ossuary
In the husk of the old Majestic Theatre lining every windowsill, hanging from cords along the ceiling, along the side of every hallway and step are the skulls of the long dead. The keepers of this shrine to those lost in the fires of the Great War are the ghouls of the Majestic Brotherhood. Though their self-appointed charges are the heads of the old dead, they'll gladly relieve trespassers in their territory of theirs. History After Dallas was devastated by the war, a man named Chrysander Ioannou found that, save for his son Rasmus, his entire family and his fellow Greek Orthodox neighbors had died. Furthermore, he suspected that he and Rasmus' poor shelter had not provided sufficient protection from radiation. Feeling doomed, he thought of preparing an ossuary as those of the Orthodox faith sometimes did as a monument to those he knew and loved. In short order he and Rasmus became ghouls. Not understanding his new condition and ravaged by despair, Chrysander believed himself to be dead, yet doomed to carry on. A voice (which might not have been in his mind) told him that he would have to finish what he started before he could move on, that collecting the bones of his neighbors meant the whole city. As Chrysander and Rasmus moved beyond the wreckage of their neighborhood they encountered other ghouls who were similarly shocked and depressed, they proved easy converts. They all began to believe that they would pass on once they created an ossuary for all the dead in Dallas. The city proved dangerous and Chrysander was gored to death by a mutant decades later. It did not occur to the ghouls that they might truly be alive at this point, that they might move on or even kill themselves if they so chose. They all believed in the cause so adamantly that they assumed that Chrysander was still among them but no longer able to move. Rasmus propped his dead father on a chair and led his father's followers to continue with his work, waiting for Chrysander to join in once more at his own convenience. Sometimes the old corpse even seems to talk. Activities & Interests The Majestic Brotherhood's driving force is collecting the skulls of the people of Dallas that died in the Great War. As there are over a million of these scattered in mutant-ridden ruins high and low, it's a task suited to a long lifespan and a compulsive outlook. They also collect the possessions of the dead which they either use personally or build reliquaries with. They care little for the condition of these artifacts but greatly for keeping them from the hands of "the living," and on one occasion a band of looters managed to sneak into a Brotherhood shrine only to find that the great treasure was a library of books that were mostly burned or rotted away. Besides their stated purpose they're interested in continuing to exist, and despite their insistence on being undead creatures they find themselves in need of food, water, and rest. They refuse to attempt to farm, which is an act of cultivating life and they try to avoid hunting which demonstrates too much regard for the living: they mostly subsist on ancient, irradiated foodstuffs packed with preservatives. They do not communicate with "the living," and will kill any who enter their territory without presenting an ancient skull for collection. Anyone who offers a skull is given safe passage through to another side of their territory, of course their lack of communication means few take them up on this. They will communicate with ghouls to recruit them or explain the rule. Ghouls who will not join are regarded as pitiable phantoms, choosing to haunt the earth without purpose or family. Phantoms are always welcome to join, however, and will not be harassed so long as they do not engage in hostilities or attempt to enter the ossuary itself. Membership The Majestic Brotherhood consists of several dozen ghouls, the vast majority of which predate the war. They regard their own kind as the living dead and have no use for the "living," such as humans or super mutants. The leadership is quite ossified having gone unchanged for the last century and members are only occasionally lost to violent encounters. They travel the ruins of Dallas in groups of three or five, unless a lead on a major find of skeletons would take them into more dangerous territory in which case they may gather in expeditions of ten. Groups larger than that are rare because they devote most of their strength towards protecting the ossuary and the areas around it. Category:Groups Category:Ghouls Category:Cults Category:Texas